Sunday Breakfast, Sunday Brunch

Lazy Sunday mornings are a thing of the past once children come along, so now I like to make them easy Sunday mornings instead!

When I was growing up, Sunday mornings were usually spent in bed sleeping off the effects of Saturday night. Then to help me get back on track I’d have a full Irish before heading off with the lads for a ‘post mortem’ on our previous night’s antics. More often than not, the afternoons were spent drifting from jazz club to jazz club – all the rage in Dublin at the time - a fantastic way to spend the day, before heading home to a big roast dinner.

As a chef in Canada, brunch was BIG business, especially on Sundays. We would do covers for up to 2,000 customers, so you can imagine how happy I am to have just 22 rooms at Dunbrody House to cater for!

Nowadays with our busy schedules, Sunday is the ideal day to get the family together for a cooked breakfast...

...be it the Full Irish or smoked salmon scrambled eggs. Both of course served with buttery toast, pots of tea and the Sunday papers. Sometimes I make a big batch of American pancakes with berry compote - there are always clean plates and major brownie points when I do these.

One of my favourite brunch recipes is eggs Benedict; poached eggs served on breakfast muffins with lovely crispy bacon, all smothered in hollandaise sauce - simply divine! Check out my how to video showing you my simple and fail safe way to poach eggs before making my homemade hollandaise.

If you’re serving a large crowd for breakfast, my sausage and mushroom omelette is the perfect option as it’s a one-pan breakfast where everyone can help themselves. It also makes for an ideal lunch when served with a salad. If that sounds a bit time-consuming - perhaps you’re heading off visiting for the day - my tasty and easy to make breakfast/brunch croissant is the ideal snack to have en route.